cuad4u
Active member
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- St Matthews, SC
As those of you who assist on this forum know, I bought 4 MEP generators in October 2013. With your generous assistance I got 3 of them running (2 each 002A and 1 each 003A). I used the 4th one as a parts donor to get the other 3 going. Lacking something constructive to do over January I decided to see if I could resserect the parts donor. A rebuilt IP, new relay A1, a new fuel hose, two new glow plugs, a couple of new gauges, and lots of cleaning and the donor MEP 002A came to life. I did the usual load testing and it worked perfectly for a month.
I loaned it out to a friend during the recent ice storm. I personally helped him wire it to his house via #6 wire to a 30 amp clothes dryer receptacle. I made sure he understood that he needed to do some "load management" and not try to run everything at one time. He ran it around 70 hours until power was restored. When I got the 002A back the output voltage was a bit too high. Even with the voltage adjust pot set at minimum (fully CCW) voltage was 260VAC and 130VAC respectively. Turning the voltage adjust pot clockwise toward maximum increased voltage to 310VAC and over 150VAC respectively. These voltages were verified by using the panel gauge and a Fluke 87 digital VOM. Hz is 60 and holds steady and varies with engine speed like it should.
I did the usual simple things like removing the cannon plug connectors, spraying them with DeOxit, and reinserting them. I disconnected all wires from the voltage adjust pot and it reads OK from minimum to maximum resistance. I have the TM and I did the "search" thing on this site, but I cannot find any specific reference to this problem.
Since the voltage adjust pot will adjust the output over a 50VAC range (260 - 310 VAC) does that mean the voltage regulator board is probably OK? How about the $3 voltage regulator board output transistor?
I am thinking either one or more of the small diodes inside the voltage / phase box or possibly one or more of the 4 diodes on the rear of the generator itself. Before I take the shotgun approach, I wonder if any of you "experts" could aim me in the right direction.
Thanks..............
I loaned it out to a friend during the recent ice storm. I personally helped him wire it to his house via #6 wire to a 30 amp clothes dryer receptacle. I made sure he understood that he needed to do some "load management" and not try to run everything at one time. He ran it around 70 hours until power was restored. When I got the 002A back the output voltage was a bit too high. Even with the voltage adjust pot set at minimum (fully CCW) voltage was 260VAC and 130VAC respectively. Turning the voltage adjust pot clockwise toward maximum increased voltage to 310VAC and over 150VAC respectively. These voltages were verified by using the panel gauge and a Fluke 87 digital VOM. Hz is 60 and holds steady and varies with engine speed like it should.
I did the usual simple things like removing the cannon plug connectors, spraying them with DeOxit, and reinserting them. I disconnected all wires from the voltage adjust pot and it reads OK from minimum to maximum resistance. I have the TM and I did the "search" thing on this site, but I cannot find any specific reference to this problem.
Since the voltage adjust pot will adjust the output over a 50VAC range (260 - 310 VAC) does that mean the voltage regulator board is probably OK? How about the $3 voltage regulator board output transistor?
I am thinking either one or more of the small diodes inside the voltage / phase box or possibly one or more of the 4 diodes on the rear of the generator itself. Before I take the shotgun approach, I wonder if any of you "experts" could aim me in the right direction.
Thanks..............